Discursive strategies and learning of the school language: an ethnographic study in a classroom with high ethnic and linguistic diversity

Research on the dialogic and intersubjective nature of children�s learning has emphasised the study of educational discourse and the semiotic mechanisms involved in understanding the students� constructive activity. These studies have been carried out in classrooms where there was continuity between the language of instruction and the students� first language. However, the number of classrooms in which students have an initial language which is not the language of instruction is increasing. This article analyses the educational discourse in a multilingual classroom when the teacher interacts with seven students in a teaching unit about language. The study uses interactional ethnography. The results show the use of teacher inquiry into the students� beliefs about the task and the semiotic procedures used to construct a shared intersubjective framework. The discussion emphasises the similarity of some of these procedures with those used in the family in the initial stages of language acquisition, as well as the variations which the teacher uses of the social and specific framework of reference.